A Fresh Start

The Gator men on the pitch look to start their season off with a bang. They are coming off a mediocre season and are looking to start this year a lot stronger than last year. The men played the Mountain View Spartans in an annual season opener game. The Gators have yet to beaten the Spartans until yesterday. The Gators were not looking too strong as they were without one of their best players Peter Love due to severe sickness. However, that did not set them back at all as they won the game 1-0. Connor Johnston scored an amazing goal to propel the gators to their first win of the season. I caught up with Peter Love to know a little bit about how they are feeling this upcoming season. He said, “You can always count on the soccer team to play with piss and vinegar in our mouths.” He kept going while also reflecting on the last year, “Last year we underperformed but are very intent to make sure that doesn’t happen this year.” The Gators have a lot of key returners including, Connor Johnston, Brock Salzman, Travis Lamb, Brian Pica, Will Mummery, Mark Botros, Oscar Delgado, and Danny Sanchez. The Gators have new faces that will make a large impact including, Kevin Box, Liam Johnson, Brian Tinsley and Alexis Stavropoulos. The Gators will be missing a key leader and inspirational player in Schafer Kraemer. Many players including Brock Salzman and Will Mummery had a few thoughts with their missing comrade. Will said “Schafer was an inspirational and an amazing soccer player. He made our whole team better not only through is words but his actions as well. He was like a brother to me on the pitch. I am going to miss him dearly and won’t ever forget about all the memories we made.” Brock added on while tears were in his eyes “I am in awe of his decision to not play this year. The feeling is like losing a family member, on the soccer team we see each other as family. But I know he will kill it on the baseball field.” The Gators will play again tomorrow against Pioneer High School.